 Football-Backed Racing WC Still Set for 2002 Wednesday August 8th, 2001 Organisers of Formula One rival series Premier1 claim the championship is still on course to begin in 2002, and have announced that Portuguese football club Benfica are the first takers. The series plans to join football clubs to one-make racing teams to create a new racing category with similar speeds to Formula One which will compete on current Grands Prix tracks. It is believed that many clubs are testing the water but are unsure until others fully commit. However, Premier1 spokesman John Sharp is confident the series will go ahead. "We are going to be launching some really big clubs," he said. "Other clubs have already signed and we are hoping for about 30 in total. "There will be four from the UK, but the numbers are fairly fluid at the moment and we are concentrating on getting large clubs signed up first then filling the rest of the spaces." Formula One bosses have expressed little concern over the chances of Premier1 stealing audiences, and although the organisers of the new series are trying to avoid clashes with Grands Prix, they are planning to compete head-on. Sharp claims that the prize money is "big enough to attract big name drivers" and said details of the car's design would be announced in October, although he did reveal plans for the engine. "We are probably looking at a 4-litre unit to allow the cars to have similar lap times and top speeds to Formula One cars," he said. The series is expected to consist of 12 races, but again the details were not exactly firm, and Sharp admitted that the start date was not when they would have liked. "We cannot start as early as planned because of the (Football) World Cup so the number of races just depends on how the season pans out."
Published at 14:58:05 GMT
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